Chuck vs. Oak

You might have hated Cavs-Hawks, not just because it was a blowout game. But because it represents everything WRONG with the game. Bunch of star players on one team, everybody just shooting 3s, nobody playing any D… It was everything that NBA Angry Old Men hate about the game.

But there was something for those grumps too, and it went down during the postgame: a 20 year old beef was resurrected… I can agree with the Angry Dudes on one thing – Charles Barkley would have never allowed another team to pump in 25 threes in a playoff game.

There’d be hell to pay. And last night Chuck said the Hawks should have taken somebody out.

Of course, I don’t’ agree with him. And of course Chuck doesn’t care. He says the Hawks should take somebody out, just like he once told me on this show he wishes we could shoot 20% of the fans. Chuck says anything. Right or Wrong, that’s why he’s so watchable.

What do we know about Oak: He’ll still go. He’s still a monster. And he still has a real problem with the Chuckster. Chuck is his Huckleberry for Life. So he jumped in on Twitter and TNT threw it in front of Chuck.

I know that take from Chuck. It’s always his response to Oak. “He doesn’t like me.” He gave me the same take after Oak wanted a piece of him 4 years ago. And it’s going to go the same way 4 years from now.

They have this routine down. It’s Who’s on First at this point. Oak wants to Go. Chuck’s not interested. The rest of us are entertained, and we all just get a glimpse of the old NBA.

I’m not one of those guys who says EVERYTHING was better back in the day. But I can say this… One exchange between Chuck and Oak was better than 4 quarters of Hawks-Cavs last night.